Malhotra injury will force Canucks to step up

Injuries happen at the wrong times, to the wrong people, in contact sports. This isn’t quite an immutable rule, but it’s close.

Somehow, the great teams overcome them.

So the Vancouver Canucks — after a sobering first couple of days during which, if they are human, each of them must have imagined taking that puck in the eye and facing a future with the possibility of lost or impaired vision — have to get on with the business at hand.

Manny Malhotra will be missed as a person and leader, missed as a faceoff man and penalty killer, and he will not be easy to replace. And like Willie Mitchell a year ago, he may not be around the team as it moves on without him, because the players who are still on the mission don’t need, and won’t want, to be reminded of his injury, or their own vulnerability.

For a day or two, the Canucks made all the same noises the Toronto Maple Leafs made 11 years ago, after defenceman Bryan Berard’s eye was nearly picked out of its socket by Marian Hossa’s stick, following though on a clearing attempt.

Many said they might consider wearing visors in the future, but by the time the future gets here, they have forgotten why they thought so. ‘Twas ever thus. And anyone waiting for the NHL Players Association to show real leadership on any issue that doesn’t involve money is in for a sad and unfulfilling life.

The Canucks’ lot, now, is to decide what sort of team they wish to be: a team that looks back five years from now, shakes its head sadly, and says: “We could have won it in 2011, if we hadn’t lost Manny,” or a team that looks back with satisfaction and says: “Manny was tough to replace, but he was a third-line centre. He wasn’t Hank or Danny or Kesler. We still had plenty.”

Yes, life would be simpler now if Cody Hodgson had already developed into the player the Canucks thought he would be when they drafted him. He could be plugged right into Malhotra’s spot, instead of taking baby steps in Winnipeg, and Alain Vigneault wouldn’t need to move Maxim Lapierre from the fourth line into a job for which he may not be good enough.

But Malhotra’s gruesome injury, and the task of filling the gaps he leaves behind, is why every team that wins a title begins its post-championship speech with: “A lot of people said we couldn’t do it,” or “we overcame a lot of adversity.”

They’re cliches. They’re also true. An 82-game season, followed by two months of playoffs, represents a long battle of attrition. Adversity is standard equipment.

If the Canucks get through this, the way they’ve got through the almost laughable epidemic of injuries to defencemen all season without missing a beat, they will have something far greater to remember than a year in which everything went right.